“Do you remember?”

“Remember what?” Seunghyun asked.  He was pretty sure he was dreaming or maybe he was dead, he wasn’t really sure and in the end he didn’t really care because he was with Daesung and he was happy. 

They were sitting on the curb of the ruined world outside their ‘home.’  It was a beautiful, clear day if one overlooked the horrible state Tokyo was in.  Seunghyun was sure Aoi was watching them from the windows above, disapproving that they were outside without permission.  But it was okay, he was certain that it was safe, there were no monsters here.

“You know.  The first time you got up the courage to admit you loved me.”

“Oh,” he smiled, “that.  That was awkward.”

Daesung was laughing and Seunghyun loved the sound, the perfect accompaniment to such a lovely day.

“I thought you might cry, hyung!”

“I think your memory is a bit off,” he laughed back, wanting to give Daesung a playful shove but instead found their hands becoming wrapped up with one another.

“But if Youngbae-hyung hadn’t said anything-”

“Oh come on, give me some credit…”

Yeah, he remembered the incident.  He’d always had that overly-affectionate relationship with Daesung.  Everyone saw it, everyone knew it.  Seunghyun himself never thought I meant much in the beginning.  He liked Dae and, like the child he was at heart, his fondness just came out as over-the-top love.  He made him keep him company, he made him watch movies with him, curled up with him at any given time—on the couch, taking over his bed, in front of anyone, it didn’t matter—he used Daesung as his own personal pillow.  Seunghyun knew he put up with him, knew he was probably a burden more than anything to his dongsaeng, but he was a needy person and Daesung never refused his company.  And somewhere along the line his “like” turned to “love” and he couldn’t really pinpoint when that happened.  Maybe in the middle of one of Daesung’s lame jokes, maybe that time Seunghyun passed out in Daesung’s bed from an evening of way too much drinking, or maybe after a ruthless dance practice and as miserable as Seunghyun felt, Daesung still managed to put a smile on and cheer him up. 

Maybe he’d always loved him from the moment they first met.  Love was crazy like that. 

But he never dreamed his feelings were mutual.  He was the burdensome hyung who frequently used Daesung’s angelic smile as his own personal pick-me-up.  His love couldn’t possibly have been a two-way street and it might have stayed that way if Youngbae wasn’t so observant and said something about it.

Seunghyun had been forcing Daesung to listen to some new indie song he found, he really couldn’t remember what it was now, but he knew Daesung would listen to it whether he was enthused about it or not.  Seunghyun never even noticed Youngbae’s presence in the room, too focused on Daesung’s face, trying to see if he liked some part of this great song that he had found. 

Youngbae must have been having a bad day, though, because normally he would have waited and taken Seunghyun aside and said “Hey, grow a pair and tell the boy already.”  Well, maybe not that exact phrasing, but something along those lines.

“What’d he say again?” Daesung asked.

“Something like, ‘Quit forcing your strange music on him and kiss him already.  We all know you’re in love with him!’”

Daesung laughed as Seunghyun imitated Youngbae’s voice perfectly.  “He was in a rare bad mood that day.  Lucky for you, though.”

Yeah, lucky that Daesung could hear every word Youngbae had said, lucky that he could hear Seunghyun’s stuttering response that came out as a small “Huh?  W-what?”  and he was lucky that he got to watch Seunghyun squirm, his face suddenly the shame shade as a tomato.  Seunghyun had went from calm and cool to a fidgety mess in a matter of seconds, even his palms had started to sweat as he tried to rub them on his jeans.  But Youngbae held no sympathy.

“And then he told you to stop squirming around and said ‘you think he’ll put up with you forever?  Just watching you flirt with him all the time is exhausting!’ and then he just left and you looked like you had just been slapped across the face,” Daesung was still laughing, squeezing Seunghyun’s hand tight in his own. 

“For a minute, I thought he crushed all my hope of being with you,” he smiled.  Seunghyun went back to the moment, remembering how he had jumped when Daesung handed him back his ipod.  He was hopeful that Daesung hadn’t heard a word Youngbae said.  “But then you said—”

“—Youngbae-hyung’s wrong, I can always put up with you,” Daesung finished the sentence without missing a beat.  “And you looked like you were about to cry as soon as I said it.”

“Don’t tease me,” Seunghyun pouted, leaning closer to gently push against Daesung’s shoulder.  “Does it still hold true, though?  You still want to put up with me?”

“Always,” he whispered, lips brushing against the shell of Seunghyun’s ear before trailing soft kisses along his jaw and just before he reached the corner of his mouth, Seunghyun met him halfway.

And Seunghyun just took the moment to enjoy a simple kiss, feeling like it had been years since he felt and tasted those wonderful lips against his own.  He tightened his grip on his hand, pulling him closer, parting lips with his own in an attempt to deepen the kiss until Daesung so rudely pulled away, instead resting his forehead against Seunghyun’s.

“I’m not so sure she agrees.”

Seunghyun started to look, knowing exactly who “she” was, but the moment he did, everything came rushing back in a flurry of pain, and instead of sitting on the curb in the midst of a beautiful day, he was sitting up in bed, breathing hard as if he had been drowning and he finally managed to kick his way back to the surface.

“Hyung, it’s okay.  Calm down, I’m here.” 

Seunghyun could feel Daesung nearby, his breath across his skin as he tried to place soothing kisses along his neck and shoulder, his fingers rubbing soft circles across his back.  It worked a little, he started to breathe easier, but it was dark, the middle of the night, he had no idea where he was, his shoulder ached and he just wanted to get up and shake off the disorientation and confusion that was overwhelming him.

“He shot me, that son of a actually shot me-”

“You have to calm down, hyung.  I can find more painkillers if you need them-”

“And was that you?” he rambled on, trying to make sense of the jumbled up memories in his head.  “You killed him, didn’t you?  Has everyone turned into a psychopath now?  Oh my god, my head-”

Daesung was suddenly atop him, kissing him hard and deep, the only method he knew to effectively quiet him down.  Seunghyun readily melted into it, feeling like he was being pulled back into his dream as he laid back against the soft pillows.

“That’s better,” Daesung said, and Seunghyun could just barely make out his smile in the darkness.  “It’s too early in the morning to be having panic attacks.”

“Where are we?”

“Hospital.”

“How did we-” he started to ask only to have a finger pressed against his lips.

“Don’t worry about it right now.   Go back to sleep, it’s still early,” he said gently, and Seunghyun could feel his fingers moving across his face, brushing his hair out of his eyes, another attempt at soothing him. 

“You won’t go anywhere?” he asked, whispering the question because he felt like a child in asking it.

“No, I’ll be right here,” he whispered back, shifting back to Seunghyun’s side and curling up next to him like the personal teddy bear that Daesung knew he was to him.  “I promise.”

“Oh, ,” Seunghyun groaned as he sat up.  He felt like he had been in the worst fight in his life coupled with a hangover and then tossed into a washing machine just for good measure.  His body was sore, his muscles ached, his head hurt, and by god if the cheerful morning sunshine streaming in through the window wasn’t making his eyes burn.

“Dae.  Hey, Daesung,” he muttered, turning and regretting the action as soon as he did it because it only made his shoulder hurt even worse.  “Daesung?” he asked again, but he wasn’t there, his side of the bed vacant.

Sighing, Seunghyun started to get out of bed, looking around at his surroundings as he did so.  It was definitely some kind of hospital room, he could tell from the bed and the sterile white walls.  When had they moved here?  What exactly had happened?  Where the hell was everyone?  All questions Seunghyun knew he wouldn’t get answers to just by standing around, so he left the room, wandering out into a long corridor lined with doors all exactly like the one he just came from.  Not wanting to waste his energy walking all the way down that long hallway, he headed through the set of double doors to his right and entered a smaller hallway that opened up into what he thought looked like a nurse’s station.  It wasn’t until he started to get closer that he saw that he had found the lobby and he could hear everyone talking.  He was about to join them when he realized they were in the middle of an argument and he wasn’t sure why he did it, but he chose to hang back and listen in instead of interrupting them.

“We should stay here until Seunghyun-hyung is better.  You don’t know what’s outside Tokyo-”

“I know what’s in Tokyo, though,” Seunghyun could hear Aoi’s response, the frustration in his voice as clear as day.  “And I know the kind of people you two pissed off and what they’ll do to us if they find us.”

“Oh come on, there can’t be that many more of those guys,” Seungri argued.

“You also riled up all those monsters.  They’re still wandering the streets.”

“We had nothing to do with that and don’t be blaming me for their sudden desire to be day-walkers.”

Daesung interjected, trying his best to be diplomatic.  “I’m not saying let’s stay here indefinitely, just until he’s strong enough.  He finally woke up, just give us another few days at least.”

“Does no one understand the situation we’re in?  We’re in dire need of supplies, those monsters have changed their roaming patterns, those yakuza-wanna-be’s want us dead, we have one guy injured, and I’m seriously starting to question some of your guys’ sanity.”

“Our sanity?’ Seungri scoffed.  “Aren’t you the one that wants to go after those guys and finish them off?  You saw what they did to Seunghyun-hyung, and he’s not some weak guy you know, and you want to go after them with just the nine of us?  We’re not some kind of warriors, I mean maybe Daesung-hyung is since he’s all Robin Hood-like with that stupid bow, but the rest of us aren’t.” 

“It was merely a suggestion, if we could take care of those guys than the necessity to leave wouldn’t be that urgent-”

“Have you all lost your damn minds?” Seunghyun snapped, stepping out into the lobby.  “You want to go after those guys?  What are you gonna do, throw Ruki’s dog at them?” 

“Hyung, what’re you doing?”  Daesung was instantly on his feet and at his side.  “You shouldn’t be moving around on your own, do you know all the work that went in to fix you up?”

“I’m fine, Daesung.  I’m not fine with you all stirring up trouble, though.”

“I think the trouble’s already been stirred up,” Aoi said.

“Come on,” Seunghyun muttered angrily, wrapping his arm around Daesung for the extra support.  “I know I’m not the brightest person here, but I’m really the one that has to spell it out for all of you?  Don’t any of you understand what those guys were doing?  Haven’t any of you wondered why we’ve never met any other survivors around here?”  No one spoke and no one dared to look Seunghyun in the eye, not even Aoi.  They all looked ashamedly at the floor.  “It’s because they find them and they kill them and take everything they have for themselves.  And the only reason I’m alive is because they wanted to find all of you but I kept my mouth shut so do me a favor and don’t do anything that will piss them off even more.  Otherwise I might as well have just died back in that room.”

“Hyung…”

“Aoi-san,” he continued, ignoring Daesung’s grip on his arm.  “I agree that we should move on.  But if you insist on causing more trouble than I already have, then maybe we should all part ways.”

Having expended all his energy in that one little speech, Seunghyun turned to leave, Daesung going with him for added support.  He was surprised at how angry he was, he was never one to let his temper get that bad, but he couldn’t help but think they all deserved to have a piece of his mind.  Honestly, was everything he went through for nothing?

“Hey, kid.  Wait.”

Aoi caught up with them outside the nurse’s station.  Seunghyun thought he looked more like a grumpy old man than he had a month ago when they first met.  Like everyone else, he was starting to look a bit scraggly and thinner.  Man, they really were experiencing the end of the world, weren’t they?

“What is it?”

“C’mon, Seunghyun, don’t make me say it,” he said, his expression softening.  But Seunghyun didn’t say a word.  He just leaned on Daesung and patiently waited for Aoi to continue.  “Okay, okay…I’m sorry, alright?  I don’t want you to think that we weren’t worried about you.  That I wasn’t worried.”

“What, you gave up on me?”

Aoi shrugged, looking a little ashamed as he looked down at the floor.  “It’d been a month.  Hate to say it, but yeah, I did.  I’m not exactly the poster boy of hope here.  Have you looked outside, kind of hard to be hopeful when you’re trapped in hell.”

“I can’t exactly say that I blame you,” Seunghyun admitted quietly.  “I’m not really the picture of hope and bravery either.”

“No, that award goes to Daesung.  Hopeful to the point of annoyance and occasionally a bit wrathful if I remember right,” Aoi smiled, slapping Daesung on the back.  Seunghyun caught the embarrassed blush that crept up into Daesung’s cheeks and he wondered vaguely what all he had missed in a month.  Daesung had significantly changed, that he knew for certain.

“I already apologized for all that…”

“Yeah, I know, but I’m still going to give you a hard time about it,” he shrugged before turning his attention back to Seunghyun.  “I can’t help it if I’m bit anxious after everything that’s happened, and as much as I want to get the hell out of here…I guess everyone is right.  We’ll stay here for awhile.  Just until you’re a little more steady on your feet, which at the moment,” he said, looking at how Seunghyun was leaning all his weight on Daesung, “doesn’t look too great.  You should get some rest.”  Aoi patted Seunghyun’s arm.  “I really am glad you made it back.”

Seunghyun smiled, pretty sure that Aoi had lost his mind in the time that he’d been gone.  But then again, he couldn’t be quite sure that he hadn’t lost his own mind, so he tried not to fault Aoi too much for being a strange old man.

Seunghyun sunk back against the nearest wall after Aoi left.  He was surprised at how exhausted he was and expending all his energy in his angry speech earlier didn’t help any.  But he still had enough energy left to spare a worried-looking Daesung, still holding onto his arms for support, a reserved smile.

“Hey.”

Daesung was watching him warily and gave a concerned smile back.  “Hey.”

“If I remember right, you saved my life.”  He took the chance to pull Daesung closer, encircling one arm around his waist as much to hold him closer in his arms as for the extra support.  “You’re my hero.”

“Does that make you my princess, then?  My damsel in distress?” he teased back, finally giving Seunghyun that full beautiful smile of his.  He laughed a little as Seunghyun watched every contour in his much paler, thinner face, examining him as if it was the first time he had seen him in his life.  And then he was pulling Daesung tight against his body, leaning all his weight on him as he hugged him close.  “Hyung-”

“Thank you, Daesung.”

Daesung was clinging to Seunghyun, refusing to let go as he bit his bottom lip in an effort to hold back tears and he knew Seunghyun was doing the same because he could feel the tremble that went through his body.

“You’re so stupid,” he whispered, knowing that if he tried to speak any louder his voice would crack and he would be crying then.

“I know.”

“You think I’m going to rescue you every time you wander off?  I need to put you on a leash or something.”

Seunghyun laughed softly in his ear and the familiar deep timbre of his laughter was soothing and comforting to Daesung.  “Well, it is your job to look after me, right?”

“Why do you have to be so troublesome, huh?” he asked, pulling away with a shake of his head and a smile on his face. 

“Because you wouldn’t have me any other way,” Seunghyun smiled back, giving him a small kiss before they were both wiping at the tears in the corners of their eyes.

“TOP-hyuuung!”

Seunghyun recognized the maknae’s voice before he even saw him and both he and Daesung shared another brief smile, before they were bombarded by the others.  They all clung to Seunghyun, patted him on the back, saying how relieved they were that they were all back together, Seungri hugging him the hardest, almost on the verge of tears.

“Ri, you’re gonna break my ribs if you don’t stop squeezing the life out of me.”

“Aw, sorry,” he smiled sheepishly, relinquishing his grip on Seunghyun and resorting to patting his uninjured shoulder instead.  “I’m just really happy you’re alright.  I thought you were going to…”  He stopped talking, his attention focused on Seunghyun’s arm instead.  “Nevermind.”

Seunghyun wrapped his arm around Seungri.  “I’m glad you’re all alright, too.”

“Seungri’s been especially worked up,” Jiyong smiled to which Seungri sent him an angry glare as if he had just told a secret he wasn’t supposed to tell.  “He helped stitch you up.  I think all the blood freaked him out, though.”

“That’s funny, you seemed pretty calm and cool when you and Dae found me,” Seunghyun smiled only to have Seungri’s glare turn on to him now.

“That was in the moment, a completely different story.  I look back now and wonder how we all managed to get out of there alive.  And it wasn’t the blood that freaked me out.  He was already bleeding all over the place when we found him.”

“Oh.  Did I almost die or something then?”

Seunghyun asked it with a smile, but no else was smiling back.  It was like he told a joke that no one else understood or found funny.  Daesung gave a slight shake of his head and he wasn’t sure if that was in answer to his question or if he was saying it was a subject not to be brought up.

But he didn’t really have time to think much about it because his legs were giving way and Seungri was keeping him upright even as everyone else tried to catch him.

“You need to rest,” Youngbae ordered, keeping a strong grip on his other arm as Daesung moved in to become his supporting pillar once again.  “I’ll bring you something to eat later.  You’ve got to be starving.”

“Now that you mention it, yeah.”

Daesung helped him back down the hallway to the room and once there, he helped put him back to bed like he was tucking in a child that refused to stay put.

“Stay, talk with me,” Seunghyun said, catching Daesung by the wrist when he turned to leave.

“Don’t you want to sleep?”

“No, I want to talk.  I’ve been gone for a long time and everyone is acting weird and I want you to fill me in.  You can start by telling me what exactly that was all about a moment ago.  Was I that bad?”

Daesung sighed as he sat on the edge of the bed.  “Seungri exaggerates.  We were just worried, is all.  I mean its not like it was a bad injury, but it looked like you were already in bad shape and this isn’t the same world anymore, you know,” he said, now rambling as he looked away from Seunghyun and focused on the floor instead.   “We’re not doctors, we didn’t know what the hell we were doing.  And we were afraid that by the time we found you and got you back to the office building and then we had to bring you here…it was a lot of blood, hyung.  I mean, it just never stopped.  And you were unconscious all this time-”

“What time?  How long?”

“It’s been about five days since we found you, I guess.”

Almost a week?  It’d really been that long?  “Well, I guess that explains why I feel so…blah.  I’m sorry I worried all of you.”  Seunghyun held onto Daesung’s hand, caressing his palm gently.  “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“When I left you were pretty scared and now you’re the group’s weapon expert.  Are you okay?”

Daesung smiled at the concerned look on Seunghyun’s face.  “I suppose you want an honest answer instead of the usual response?”  Seunghyun stared back with a raised eyebrow, an expression that said, you should know exactly what I want.  “I’m fine, hyung.  Really,” he added when he saw the skeptical look on his face.  “I admit, after you disappeared, no, I wasn’t fine.  I had to find a way to take my mind off things.  Using that bow kind of just…kept me occupied.  Then I started to get frustrated and a little angry.”  He laughed a little, though the sound was more sad than cheerful.  “I think I was becoming pretty intolerable to everyone.”

“That’s hard to imagine,” Seunghyun tried to be consoling, noticing the sad, hurt look in his eyes and voice as he squeezed his hand.

“I blew up at Aoi,” he admitted.  “And everyone else for that matter.”

“You were upset.”

“No one seemed to care anymore and it made me angry,” he continued.  “I took my frustrations out by becoming a good shot.”

Seunghyun suddenly patted the spot next to him with an encouraging smile and Daesung readily filled the space by laying down next to him.  “Well, I don’t know if I like this new you yet or not, but you being a good shot saved me, so it’s fine.  Don’t worry about it.”

He curled up next to Daesung, content as a kitten to have him nearby as he nuzzled into his neck and pressed a few lazy kisses there.

“Missed you,” he whispered, feeling exhausted but more than happy at the same time.

“Me too,” he replied and then a moment later, in a softer voice, “Hyung, don’t ever leave me again.”

 Seunghyun kissed his way up the column of neck to Daesung’s ear.  “I won’t, I promise.”

“What in the hell…?”

Seunghyun pressed his palms against the glass and stared at the scene on the street below them.  Though he’d been up and about for the last two days, his main focus had been on getting some of his strength back.  He was still a little unsteady on his feet at times, his shoulder hurt like hell, but was nothing a little painkillers couldn’t fix and they had found a good supply of those.  All in all he was feeling immensely better than he had a week ago when they found him.  The one thing he had refused to do was look outside because he knew what the others were saying and he was afraid of what he would see if he did look.  The outside world was something everyone else could worry about for the time being while he focused on his own basic human needs: eating, sleeping, and loving on Daesung.

Now he kind of wished Daesung hadn’t forced him to face his fears and look.

“They’ve been coming out more and more.  There’s a bigger group here than there was yesterday.”   

The city was no longer lifeless.  Those things, whatever they were, had taken up occupancy in the streets, wandering around like a slow-moving parade of cattle.  They didn’t necessarily stagger or move like he thought zombies should, it looked more like a bunch of people on their way to work but they were all in slow motion.  Occasionally one would stop at the intersection at the end of the road, as if somewhere in its diseased mind it knew to stop and look both ways before crossing.  It was a disturbing sight and Seunghyun almost wished they would go back into hiding.  He was really relieved, though, that he didn’t see her down there walking amongst them.

“What about those guys I was with?”  Another question he hadn’t bothered to ask in the last two days. 

Daesung turned away from the windows.  “We heard shots a few days ago just before you woke up, but nothing since then.  Maybe they got pushed out of the area.”

“Or maybe they got what they deserved,” he muttered.

“Maybe.  Can you see the sun?”

“Yeah, what about it?” he asked, seeing the light beginning to dip below the horizon.  It looked like any normal sunset, nothing peculiar there.

“Hyung, it’s only five in the afternoon.”

“How do you know the time?”

“Found a watch at the nurse’s desk,” he said, holding the object out to him.  “Still ticking, no reason to distrust it.  Plus there’s a clock in the main hallway.”

Seunghyun was a bit confused.  “So are you trying to tell me the world’s getting darker?  Those clocks are obviously off.  Ravaging diseases that cause people to turn into zombies I can believe, the world moving away from the sun?  A little farfetched.”

“You can’t just pick and choose what you want to believe when there are zombie things walking around outside.”

Seunghyun smiled as he turned and took Daesung’s hand.  “I’m hungry.”

“You’re always hungry,” he whined as Seunghyun pulled him down the hallway to the lobby.  “You know Kai is going to yell at you again for sneaking food.  Besides, I try to tell you something serious and your mind instantly wanders to food?  Seriously?”

“So the sun is setting a few hours earlier, it’s fine,” he shrugged.  

“Uh, not really...have you noticed, it’s started to get colder, too?  It should be getting warmer, not cooler.”

“You worry too much,” he shrugged.  “Hey, you know what I’d really like?” Seunghyun asked with a smirk as he turned and walked backwards, now holding both of Daesung’s hands as he swung them back and forth.  “A nice, hot shower.”

“Good luck with that.”

“I mean a really nice, hot shower,” he continued, Daesung recognizing the devious smirk on his face even before he slipped his arm around his waist.

“I can dump a pan of boiling water on your head, I guess,” he replied, pretending to be oblivious to Seunghyun’s suggestions.  “What about a sponge bath?”

“Well that’s not really…as y…and kind of defeats my intended purpose,” he said before swooping in for a quick kiss.

“I figured as much.  I’m glad you’re feeling better, by the way.  You’ve been awfully peppy these last couple days.  Here we are, we’re all dingy and dirty, I’m sure we all smell awful, I can’t even brush my teeth, we’re surrounded by monsters, and you’re acting like the happiest little boy in the world.”

“I’m just happy I’m not dead.  Anyways…food!”

“Hey!” Kai said as they walked into the lobby and Seunghyun made a beeline straight for the food pile.  “Don’t be raiding the stockpile again!  We’re not going to last another day if you keep eating everything.”

“Yeah, we’ve already cleaned out all the vending machines and the cafeteria around here,” Reita said.  “Why do you have to be such a bottomless pit?”

“He’s not listening to either of you,” Daesung smiled.  “He’s completely focused.  Where is everyone?” he asked, looking around at the nearly empty room.

“Aoi and Ruki went to the roof, Uruha went with Youngbae and Seungri to look through some more of the rooms on the lower floors and I have no idea where Jiyong went.  Maybe he went to look for more food, which we’ll need unless someone stops eating everything.”

“How come there’s so much ramen?” Seunghyun asked, not having heard a word Reita had just said.  “Haven’t you guys ever heard of variety?”

“Aw, for crying out loud…can’t you control him?” Reita asked as Daesung sat on the floor next to him.

“Not in the slightest,” he smiled back. 

Kai rolled his eyes and went back to making a tally of how many batteries they had managed to find when they all heard a horrendous pounding coming from somewhere in the building.  The sound echoed through the room, and at the same time that a chill went down Seunghyun’s spine, he could have sworn he felt the entire building shake.  They were all instantly on their feet. 

“What the hell is that?  Is it coming from downstairs?  You don’t think…?”

Reita didn’t finish his thought, instead they headed for the stairs, running for the first floor lobby and the main entrance, meeting Aoi and Ruki on the way and finding the others already gathered at the front doors when they got there.

“What the hell are they doing?”

That seemingly mindless herd Seunghyun and Daesung had witnessed just moments ago was now at the front doors to the hospital, pounding relentlessly on the glass, pushing and shoving at one another in an attempt to get inside.

“Looks like they want something,” Jiyong said next to Seunghyun, making him nearly jump out of his skin at his sudden appearance next to his elbow.

But he couldn’t deny the feeling that maybe Jiyong was right, they did want something, and he had a pretty good idea of what that something was. 

“They saw me,” he whispered, terrified as he clung to Daesung’s arm, unable to see the smile that was on Jiyong’s face.  “That’s why they’re here, they saw me.”

“What are you talking about?  It has nothing to do with you, hyung, they couldn’t have seen you anyways,” Daesung tried to be consoling as he took Seunghyun’s hand in both of his as Aoi suggested they all go back upstairs and bar the doors behind them.  But he could tell from the look in Seunghyun’s eyes, that his attempts weren’t doing much good.  “Hyung, it’s okay.  Really, we’ll be okay, we’re safe.”

Seunghyun nodded but didn’t believe a word he was saying.  He didn’t know why he knew or how he knew, but he was certain that hoard was there for him and he knew, he just knew, that somewhere out there amongst all those gray people, that woman was there, too.

“Daesung,” he whispered, stopping in the middle of the staircase and letting everyone else walk past them.  “I…we have to talk.”

Daesung blinked back at him, concerned but confused more than anything as he continued to try and calm Seunghyun down.  He could feel the tension running through his body as he held onto his hands.  “What?  What is it?”

Seunghyun looked like he was suddenly on the verge of tears. 

“I…I think there’s something wrong with me.”

___________________________________

Jiyong is being creepy again...>.> 

Kind of a boring chapter, sorry.  And it doesn't flow very well, and it kind of comes across as filler and it kind of , but I did my best to put in some Todae moments, so I hope that makes up for it^^ I tried for some SERIOUS todae, but it didn't go at all well so forgive me, I'll do better next time. Promises for a more exciting chapter on the next one!

 Comments are <3!